Note 55 — Chapter II · THE HEROIC AND VILLAGE GODLINGS.

In the old mythology Aditî, or infinite space, was regarded as the Eternal Mother, and Prâkritî was the Eternal Mother, capable of evolving all created things out of herself, but never so creating unless united with the eternal spirit principle embodied in the Eternal Male, Parusha. There appears to have been a tendency on the part of the Indo-Germanic race to look upon their deities as belonging to both sexes at once, and hence the dualistic idea in Brâhmanism of Ardhanari, or the androgynous Siva.55